Turns out, I’m not very good at wallowing. I can only do it for so long before it starts to annoy me. Which meant it would only be a matter of time before I picked up Draft #2 to see what might be salvageable.
The first step was to figure out exactly what was there. I took the printed pages and a notebook, and I began to map out the sections. I assigned a number to each section, and in the notebook, I scribbled a brief description. Occasionally, I made a note in the manuscript itself, most often “nec?” to ask if the section was actually necessary. Turns out, there’s a fair bit of pointless rambling and redundancy in the book at the moment, but at least I know where it is.
I’m not technically there yet. Still 14 months to go. But I did it! I made the hard call to the boss Thursday.
The day job was really wearing me down, like to the point of fearing I might not make it to the finish line. The thought of commuting through another hard winter was wearing me down. Not being able to focus more on my passion was wearing me down.
So… I retired early!! I need to shout it out and celebrate! Going out before my pension kicks in is still retirement, right? Even if it is scarier?
Lot’s of changes in our lifestyle ahead, which means… It’s Time to Simplify!
I’m already going through my accumulated junk (aka, treasures). Here are a few precious things I’m memorializing before I toss them out.
Living in the same place for 25 years can make anyone a hoarder, right? (That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.) We’ve purged things every time we made a big move, but this is the longest stretch between bouts of purging. One of those moves included living in a travel trailer for half a year, which meant I really had to purge. Still, I managed to hold onto things from my childhood, high school, starting out in life…
Each decade in this home I became obsessed with a new hobby. My craft room is brimming with stuff from my mixed media art days, knitting and crochet days, scrapbooking days, journaling days, and cross stitching days. Did I really think I would use up all that stuff? I never gave a thought to what I would do if I had to clean it out. It’s oddly both exhilarating and deflating.
Getting rid of favorite books and LPs, hordes of yarn, and other precious stashes is really hard. The labor to sort through it all (without loosening precarious piles on top of my head or flooding my floor space) is hard.
After a summer of all that bittersweet labor, you might find me like this by next winter.
In a voice that plucked at her heart strings, her dear swallow lamented, “All winter we exchanged stories, my beautiful Thumbelina, and it made my heart soar. When you climbed upon my back and begged me to take you to my favorite far away land, how could I have known my happy dream would end with you forsaking me for another?”
My next Sunday Spotlight (March 26) will give us a unique perspective into two amazing supporters of the writing community when we visit with Max and Teona of Writing Battle! We will discuss this phenomenal peer-powered writing competition, how it came about, and the amazing community of writers from around the globe taking part.You’ll get to hear the perspectives from both Max and Teona and be inspired by their teamwork and how they made a dream come true.
It has been too long since I’ve been in a throng of people having a good time. Not that I’m a partier or one who gets out a lot in the first place, but after three years of pandemic life, hibernating in front of my computer writing, and this year, being restricted by an unusually harsh and long winter, I realized that even infrequent participation in society is better than none, and it’s good for the soul.
So, my friend had tickets to Elle King and needed a buddy to brave the snowy mountain highway with her to Lake Tahoe, which is thirty minutes from our neighborhood, and another ten to South Lake.
I like Ms. King’s songs. I hoped for a good show. She was okay. Seemed like she’d been partying a bit hard before coming on stage. She was quite sassy and tossing out the f-bombs liberally while toking on a joint. A little of that goes a long way. What can I say? As a writer I cringe at demonstrations of limited vocabularies. We also waited a long time for her to start after her amazing opening band concluded. And she left abruptly with no encore. But that’s okay. I still had a great night out.
We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and service at the Sapori Italian Kitchen at the top of Harrah’s with an amazing view of the famous emerald lake surrounded by snow and clouds any artist would dream to paint. I loved the opportunity to indulge in good company, lots of conversation, and people watching. Even the room at the Quality Inn was cozy and the perfect place to crash before heading home the next morning.
But there are a few other highlights that made this outing special. I have an entire scene in book one of my series, The Starlight Chronicles, where Andras takes Selena for an evening out at Harvey’s. It’s a pivotal point in the plot, Andras’s big reveal, and precipitates a critical action scene. It was good to see that my impressions from previous experiences were spot on, and I felt like I was walking around in my book. The people-watching was a much-needed opportunity for character ideas. What a blast! Getting outside my head for stories is kind of amazing.
The Red Clay Strays
The second highlight was the opening band, the Red Clay Strays. I’d never heard of them and I always love an opportunity to be introduced to new music. If you haven’t listened to them or seen them live, I recommend both. If you like Country mixed with Rock, the energy of Jerry Lee Lewis mixed with a Chris Stapleton-like voice, you’ll dig this band.
By D. L. Lewellyn 